Harry Styles
There was a lot of pressure on my shoulders at the thought of having to impress her family. Much like with mine, a ton of different personalities were present, some clashed terribly and some clicked nicely. That was all based on her telling me stories about them in order to prepare me for the dinner that was bound to happen.
I thought her parents were amazing. The front they put up, the adoration and love they had for her was something that mine lacked when it came to me and my siblings. Some parts of me were jealous of the affection, the parental care I have always lacked due to my mother and father being obsessed with their careers, but I didn't voice it. At one point, I almost did, then caught myself and didn't let it slip.
This was the first time in forever Kensington was home, I thought she needed it, even though she told me this was no big deal for her. As soon as she was around her dads, she became crystal clear to me. She was like water – I saw right through her. All the walls, the tense posture, the constant frown... all those things disappeared as we sat in the living room and talked.
This was one of the many sides of Renleigh Kensington I haven't had the chance to see before and I adored it.
"So, tonight will be a close little family get together," Oscar began to explain. No one really knew what was happening, at least none of us who sat in the living room did. That included me, Kensington and Sophie. Although, the latter had been sleeping for about three hours now since she was absolutely jet lagged. "Just a nice dinner at my favourite restaurant. Then tomorrow, when the big party is happening, we will meet the others at the location of where we planned the day."
"Why won't everyone just come here?" Kensington asked. "What's the point of renting a place when we have it?"
"It will be easier for everyone," Sam explained. "Now, I think it's time for all of us to go and get ready so we can leave in time," he smiled at all of us.
"Who's coming to this?" she asked her dad. "Is it just us four?"
"We'll see how Sophie is feeling," Oscar said as he took a sip of his tea. I shifted in my seat, my right leg over my left as I leaned on the arm of the sofa, Kensington next to me. "It's half five now, we have a reservation for around half seven... we'll leave in an hour?"
"Yeah," Sam nodded with his focus on his phone. "That works for me."
"Alright," Kensington stood up and I watched closely. "See you then," she nodded at her parents then looked at me as she began to make her way out of the room. I felt awkward just leaving like that, even though the conversation her parents had with us before the party topic went smoothly.
I pressed my lips together as I smiled at her parents then followed her back up the stairs. As we went back to her room, I found myself breathing more... freely.
"Is it weird that I feel really out of place and unsure and kind of awkward and intimidated and like I can't take a breath without giving a reason for it?" the words burst out of me as if the invisible gate just popped open. Kensington looked at me as her head practically snapped towards my direction. I leaned against her closed door and watched as the confusion overtook her face.
"Why do you feel like that?" she asked me with her head tilted.
"I dunno..." I mumbled. "How do I stop it?"
"Umm," she looked at me just as lost as I felt. "C'mere," she reached in front of her with one hand and I did as she asked me to, even though I was a little confused. She wrapped her arms around my middle and rested her head on my chest. I was surprised by the gesture and in the state of shock I felt, I wasn't sure what to do. She was about to pull away when I placed my arms round her neck and let out the breath, I had no idea I even held in.
We stood there for a while, the embrace felt warm and safe. Her fingers gently stroked my back through my shirt which helped me calm my nerves which came out of nowhere. She showed she cared because she couldn't verbally explain it. The way she acted spoke more than the words that left her lips.
I just hoped I wasn't reading the signs wrong.
"Better?" she questioned softly after she pulled back from me. She ran her fingers through her hair, flicked it from one side to the other, then put both of her hands on her waist.
"I... yeah. Uh, I guess," I let out a breathy chuckle as my eyes went everywhere but to her waiting gaze. "I'll... should we start getting ready? I might get in the shower, if that's ok?"
"Yeah. Sure," she nodded. "As you go out the next door to your left is the bathroom," she informed me and sat down on her bed. "I'll get you a towel and there should be some kind of shower gel in there, too."
I nodded as I watched her get back up and leave the room. I sighed loudly as I sat on her bed and hid my face in my hands. This was kind of stressing me out. I wasn't sure why, I just felt strangely pressured. When the idea came to my mind to ask her willingly to bring me home, it didn't occur to me that it would impact my mood so much. The way I felt was weird.
I wanted to come off like the perfect man for Kensington and I hated that I felt like I had to put on a front. I felt out of place in the house, in the room, in the company of her or her parents. They were really nice and welcoming, that wasn't the problem. I felt like I was interrupting their weekend, like I was not meant to be here and I didn't know why I suddenly panicked so much.
Somewhere deep down, I was also pretty fucking jealous. She was so loved by her parents. She mentioned a few times that they fought all the time and they didn't believe her when she shared personal things with them. But even on top of that, they had nothing but adoration for their daughter. They looked at her like she was the best thing to ever walk on this damn planet, and trust me, I knew she was, I thought that too. The only problem was that she didn't see it.
Out of nowhere, I felt a slight push on my shoulder and my head snapped upwards. Kensington stood there, with the towel in her hand. I just stared up at her as my eyes burned a little, my vision became blurrier by the second and I had no fucking clue what happened.
She slammed the door shut – or maybe she just closed it with a bit more force than she wanted to – before she threw the towel on the bed and sat down next to me.
"What have I done now?" she questioned quietly. Her words made my heart wrench, her tone was very emotional yet the one thing I heard the clearest was how lost she felt. "Should I have taken you to get a towel with me? Do you not like the colour or something?"
No words came out of my mouth, I shook my head as a response. I heard her sigh heavily, her hands were between her thighs and she fiddled with her fingers. She had long, red nails and they were coffin shaped. She had a few rings on her fingers, too, all of them silver, decorated with diamonds. She had two bracelets wrapped around her left wrist, the jewellery silver, again, one of them decked out with diamonds, the other just a basic hard band. I could tell they were from the same brand and there was about ten thousand pounds worth of accessories on her hands.
She clearly was doing well for herself.
"Is this about Matt?" she questioned suddenly. I felt her eyes on the side of my face. "I know we left things off a bit strange after the funeral so I have no idea where you stand with the topic. If something triggered you by being here, let me know."
"I don't know," I mumbled the only thing that made sense. I didn't know. Kensington sighed next to me, again, and I thought it was about time I started counting how many times she had done that. "I'll just go take a shower," I told her quietly and stood up as I grabbed the towel.
"Wait," she said quickly and grabbed my wrist. Her hand was cold and soft, her fingers ran up my arm as she got on her feet. Her right hand took a hold of my cheek as she pressed her lips to mine and the action knocked the breath out of me. I didn't expect it from her at all. Then again, nothing she ever did was something that I expected.
Her lips felt soft and needy of answers. Although her touch was cold, it burned my skin and I craved for more. I wanted the kiss to last, it was innocent and so unlike us, but unfortunately it really did seem like all good things have to come to an end.
When she pulled back, I watched as she licked her lips and tucked her hair behind her ear. Her eyes flickered up to mine and she sent me the smallest smile ever. I stared at her a little confused before I let out a sigh and walked out of her bedroom.
I felt like an arse for doing that. I felt like I deprived her from my feelings and myself but I was... well, not myself. I had no idea what had gotten into me.
Oh, come off it. You know you are jealous of her for being loved by her parents.
And maybe I was. More than I let on. And that made me feel like shit. I mean, how could I be jealous of someone for being loved? That made absolutely no sense. I thought it was unfair and I hated that I thought that, especially when it came to someone who so desperately needed to be loved. Renleigh deserved all that love and even more – but so did I.
I wanted my parents to look at me with their eyes smiling and their hearts filled with warmth. I wanted my parents to be happy to see me when I went home and welcome me with open arms. And hot chocolate and sausage butties. I wanted my parents to love me for who I was and not always pester me to be better.
Kensington had that.
I wasn't sure if it was all perfect for her, but she had that.
Loving and supporting parents.
What I had? Not parents, that was for sure. Guardians, maybe. Then again, I didn't even live under their roof, I was twenty-four years old and made my own money. I really had no other connection to them other than blood.
I sniffled before I washed my face again and turned off the shower head. I dried myself quickly and then wrapped the towel around my waist. My clothes were in the bedroom, I didn't even think to bring them in, for which I scolded myself.
"When is B coming?" her voice was the one thing that stopped me from entering her bedroom. Eavesdropping wasn't in my plans but neither was spending the weekend with the Kensington bunch.
"He'll only be here tomorrow," her dad replied. It was Sam. He came off much more intimidating than Oscar. I thought they balanced each other out really well. Also, Renleigh was more like him. Stricter, well-opinionated, didn't take anyone's shit. "Listen, about Harry... is he OK?"
"I think so, why?" she questioned. The fact that my name was suddenly dropped, made me want to quit and also carry on listening.
"He seemed really distracted downstairs. Kept zoning out and staring. Didn't say much, did he?" he concluded. I wondered where this would go.
"Yeah, um, I think it's just because he's meeting you guys for the first time."
"Hmm, that's what I thought," he shared. "The thought crossed my mind that maybe, he wasn't so on board with us."
"What do you mean, dad?"
"We are not your typical family," he said which made no sense. What did he even mean by that? At this point, I was certain his daughter gave him a look because he sighed and carried on. "I guess what I am trying to get at is that he may not be OK with you having two dads."
"What?" she shrieked. "Why wouldn't he be OK with that? Dad, he is the least judgemental person I have ever met," she came for my defence quickly. Her voice softened but still sounded like she was down to fight. "I can guarantee you he is not homophobic."
"His lack of communication and stares led me to believe otherwise. Of course, I didn't want to jump to conclusions so I decided to come and talk to you about it."
"Well, maybe you should talk to him," she stated. "Then again, that would make you look bad if your assumptions would blow up in your face."
"I do not tolerate that kind of behaviour under my roof. If he turned out to be someone else, you best believe he would never come near this house – or you for that matter – ever again."
"Well, you can stop thinking about killing him off because he sways both ways. Not that it is any of your business but because you seem to believe he is some homophobic twat, I guess I had to tell you."
That felt awkward. Them discussing my sexual preferences and beliefs. I guess it wasn't something that people didn't do but actually hearing it, made me feel a bit uncomfortable. So, to end my suffering – and clearly Kensington's, too – I made an appearance as calmly as I could.
Then again, I was basically naked with the towel around my waist.
"Styles," she said and it made her dad turn around so quick, I thought he may faint from the way his brain juggled around in his brain. "You are... bare."
"Yeah, I, uh, forgot to bring my clothes in... sorry," I slipped past Sam to grab my bag. I heard him sigh and I felt even more awkward now. "Sorry," I said again as I left the room and went back to the bathroom. "Oh. My. God." I mumbled as I looked in the mirror. I looked a bit tired and like I had no emotions.
I closed the toilet and put my bag on top of it. Thankfully, I brought a few different outfits with me to have options. For the dinner, I decided to go with my plaid trousers, a back shirt and boots. The top few buttons were left undone on my shirt and I tucked the bottom in my trousers. I twisted my rings around my fingers and moved the cross on my necklace to the front, with the clasp in the back. My hair was a bit of a mess, I decided to wash it so for it to look good, I needed to blow dry it. After I was done with dressing up, I went back to the bedroom, this time I found it empty.
My thumb and index finger trapped my bottom lip as my eyes travelled all over the room for the hair dryer. I decided to open one of the drawers that was next to her desk, only to find books and diaries. The next one held pens and rulers and glues and other stationery. Then the third one was filled with chargers and batteries and the last one held the thing I was looking for. Quickly, I grabbed it and decided to look for a plug, a content smile appeared on my lips when it just so happened to be right next to the full-length standing mirror.
With my hairbrush in my hand, I decided to sit down on the floor and do my hair that way. The hair dryer was powerful and loud, the warm air slapped me in the face as the opening of it was towards me. I screwed my eyes shut for a moment as my head turned to the side then I moved the hair dryer and began to sort my head out.
I jolted in my seat when my eyes met a pair of hazel ones through the mirror, a smirk on her lips as she watched me with her arms crossed. I wetted my lips with my tongue before I went back to doing my hair, from the corner of my eyes, I saw as she walked in the room and got on the bed. She laid on her stomach with her elbows propped up and her face in her hands. I felt her stare at me, watch every one of my moves.
Once I was done, I turned it off and ran my fingers through my curls then reached for my hair products to style it. I warmed up the gel between my hands before I ran it through my hair, my fingers twisted the strands around until it all seemed to get into place.
Her eyes were still on me as I got up and unplugged the dryer, then placed it back where I found it. My hands felt a bit sticky so I slipped out of the room and back into the bathroom to wash my hands.
"You're being weird," Kensington told me as I stepped back in the room, my thumb moved my rose ring a little bit as my eyebrows furrowed. She crossed her arms again, her typical defensive posture was there, again. Up until then, I didn't even realise she was ready, too.
She looked too good to be with someone like me. My eyes could barely stop from moving up and down her body as I checked her out, with no shame whatsoever. She had a pair of grey, plaid trousers on with a deep red coloured top tucked into the bottoms. It complimented her chest and drew attention to her upper body. Her hair was down and face accentuated with makeup. She looked stunning and I couldn't help but bite down on my lip.
"What?" I asked back, completely confused and lost. She looked so fucking good and my mind could only focus on that.
"I said, you are being weird," she repeated what she probably said before. Her hands were tucked away in her pockets as she moved a little, placed her weight on her tiptoes before she stood back on her feet. Her toenails were the same colour as her fingernails. "We need to get going, though. Are you ready?"
"What time is it?" I questioned.
"Time to go," she rolled her eyes. "Let's go."
Before we went downstairs, she put on a pair of high heels, grabbed a coat that matched her top as well as her bag whilst I picked my coat up then put my wallet and phone away. As she moved around, I smelt her perfume in the air, the sweet scent was so unlike her. Then that quickly washed away and was overpowered by her dads colognes in the living room.
"Alright, red for my little girl," Oscar picked up a glass, filled with red wine and smiled at Kensington. "And another one for her complicated and mysterious plus one."
"Dad," she groaned as he addressed me by the nickname, I knew I would never live down. It made me smirk as I took the glass from him. My rings hit the glass softly but I didn't think anyone heard it apart from me.
"Oh, come on, Leigh," he laughed. "It's just banter, isn't it, Harry?"
"Sure," I nodded and took a sip of the wine. The taste immediately gave away the fact that it was my grandparents'. It made me chuckle which caused everyone in the living room to look at me. "Um... the wine's... nice."
Kensington looked at me with a weird look on her face before she took a sip too then chuckled under her breath. No one gave me any other comment, but that may have been because of Sophie coming downstairs. She looked very tanned and the white trousers probably added to that illusion.
"Just in the time for the red juice, huh?" she laughed as she took one glass from Oscar as well. "Mhmm, this is delicious."
"Alright," Sam spoke up. "The uber should be here soon so I say we finish off our drinks and make our way outside, shall we?"
I nodded a little as I took another sip of the wine. I looked to my side and I found Kensington gone from her spot. My head turned and twisted to find her in the room but it was like she disappeared into thin air.
"You look very handsome, hun," Sophie spoke to me which scared me a little bit because I didn't expect her to.
"Oh, um, you look- look lovely," I smiled at her with my face tense. I wasn't sure how to act around her. Some parts of her reminded me of Kensington, the one who didn't let me in at all at the start. "Have you seen where Renleigh went off to?"
"She's on the phone to someone. Probably work," she told me. "You know how she is."
"Yeah," I chuckled.
It felt like I was meant to engage in a conversation with her about something else but nothing really came to me. She did briefly mention Thailand before she went to take a nap so that topic was already done and dusted.
"Hey," I heard the soft voice which surprisingly enough, belonged to Kensington. All day today, I felt like I was proper lost in my thoughts and just not with it, which was very unlike me. However, maybe all that she told me today about her past, plus meeting her dads, it was a little too much for me to process all at once. "Will you tell me later?" she asked with hopeful eyes.
"Tell you what?" I asked back. I felt her hand grab a hold of mine gently, her fingers laced through mine as the other one lifted the glass up to her mouth. "I feel like you should tell me what's going on with you."
"With me?" she chuckled. "Nothing. What about you, though?" she diverted the conversation back to me. Her tone was so soft and honest and curious. I wished we didn't need to leave for a meal now. "You seemed like you were going to cry."
"I-," pause. "I wasn't."
"Just tell me later," she smiled as her thumb stroke my skin then leaned closer and pecked my lips quickly.
• • •
a.n.
UWU i love when they're being cute
oh also i'm sorry for the confusion about her parents in the last chapter lmao. i can see how it made no sense like she never mentioned before that chapter that she had 2 dads and then two new characters just stepped in with no information about them or anything hehe hopefully it's all clear now!
also i hate asking for comments/feedback but i'd appreciate it so much if u guys could be a little more active hehe i really do put in the work to make sure the chapters and the story as a whole is enjoyable but i just don't feel like it's appreciated??? that might not be the right word but yeah 😳 and like i know this is not about the number of votes and comments blah blah blah but i just like reading your thoughts and reactions :)
but that's all for now lol don't forget to vote xoxo